When a consumer makes a purchase at an attended point of sale terminal (“point of sale transaction”) with a physical payment card (e.g., a credit card or a debit card), where the physical payment card may have visual security features such as a valid hologram, security code, printed numbers, a signature panel, etc., there are procedures or rules the attendant (or cashier) may follow to determine the validity of the card. For example, the attendant may check the valid date and the expiration date on the front of the card; compare the first four digits of the primary account number (PAN) on the card front with the four digits printed below the PAN, to ensure the same digits appear in the same sequence; compare the four-digit truncated PAN imprinted in the signature panel with the last four digits of the PAN on the card front; compare the PAN on the card front with the number displayed on, or printed from, the terminal; if a photograph of the cardholder is present on the card, compare the photograph on the card with the person presenting the card; and check that the card is signed. In some instances, these procedures may not apply when a Chip Transaction is completed with PIN as the cardholder verification method (CVM).
Increasingly, purchases are made at self-checkout (SCO) terminals and unattended cardholder-activated terminals (CATs). In the United States, for example, SCO terminals may be popular in grocery and large retail stores. SCO terminals may be a blend between the attended point of sale terminals and unattended CATs. Frequently there may be an attendant in the area, but the attendant may not actively monitor the payment transaction. If the attendant does not handle the card, as with SCO and CAT terminals, the attendant may not be able to assess the validity of the card per the rules and procedures described above with respect to the point of sale (POS) transactions. As such, SCO and CAT terminals may carry a different level of fraud risk compared to an attended terminal.
In terms of recording and tracking the transactions, conventional transactions at SCO and CAT terminals may not be isolated as such, and instead may be identified as attended POS transactions by Issuers, Acquirers and card associations (e.g., MasterCard). Conventionally, merchants set the codes associated with attended POS transactions according to Acquirer instructions, which are based on standards established by card associations (e.g., MasterCard). Merchants send data to Acquirers, who reformat the data into the MasterCard or other card format.
The present inventors have now realized that it may be desirable to differentiate transactions at SCO and CAT terminals from attended POS transactions in the tracking of transactions.